Straight Arms and Broken Backs!
Shaping is one of those things that are so often misunderstood. Often dancers break their backs and necks in order to attain what they perceive as a big shape. One of my biggest pet peeves is ladies that dance with a straight right arm. It is obvious that they do not know how to create shape properly, and are therefore using that right arm to push themselves into the space that they think they should be in.
Marco & Joanne at the 2010 Snowball Classic, showing big shape without the use of a straight right arm.
Mistake #1: Using muscular tension in order to create shape.
Mistake #2: Believing that only the lady is responsible for the shape.
Mistake #3: Thinking that shape is a static position.
When you see the top dancers on the floor, it certainly looks like they have a huge shape that never changes. However, in reality, shape is not a static position; it is in fact very mobile and is symbiotically related to movement.
The next question you should be asking is…
Does shaping result in movement or does movement result in shaping?
This is what we will be discussing in our next workshop on Wednesday July 20th. Come and learn about how to create Dynamic Shaping, and more specifically, how the MAN can help create the shape for the LADY.
Everyone is welcome!
Date: Wednesday, July 20th
Time: 8:30-10:00pm
Place: Peretz Centre (2nd floor)
6184 Ash Street (@ 45th Ave)
Cost: $20 per person
*We will be exploring both syllabus and open level figures and groupings.
